Prestige takes time

In the quest to make great sparkling wine, time is a critical factor, says Derwent Valley winemaker Steve Lubiana. Time to discover a site ideally suited to growing grapes for the style. Time to unravel the complex relationships that link grape varieties, vineyard sites and winemaking regimes.

Time for the finished wine to evolve and mature into something interesting and pleasing to the senses.

The question is: how much time?

There's no hard and fast rule, Lubiana adds.

In the case of his current, limited release 2011 Stefano Lubiana Prestige, it's been a total of 14 years. And, he says, he's still counting. 

The wine is only the third super-premium sparkling that Steve and Monique Lubiana have released under their celebrated Prestige label. The couple began making traditional method sparkling wines - with fruit from other vineyards - back in 1993. 

This Prestige also happens to be the best to date. Late last month, the Halliday Wine Companion's panel of writers confirmed that. They named it their Australian Sparkling Wine of the Year in the 2026 edition of the top-selling publication.

The 2011 vintage is a 60% Chardonnay 40% Pinot Noir cuvée. The wine spent 12 years on its yeast lees before being disgorged and packaged with its luxurious gold label. Current stocks have had the benefit of almost two years' bottle age in the Lubianas' cool underground cellar on their Granton property.

Lubiana remembers the first Prestige. A 50:50 blend of Derwent Valley Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, it was the product of the superb 1995 vintage in Tasmania. The wine's exacting standards shoved a marker in the sand the couple hoped they would one day exceed.

"When I first made that wine in 1995, it was my intention to put it down for a long while," Lubiana says.

"I had no idea how long the process might take. I didn't expect it would take 12 years to be ready. I had this idea in my head of really exploring the boundaries of sparkling wine production, so I decided I'd just run with it.

"You have to do these kinds of things or you don't progress. You don't progress as a winemaker. You don't progress the quality of your wines. And you don't progress the quality and reputation of your vineyard and your wine region.

"Besides, it gets pretty boring doing the same stuff all the time."

Lubiana waited four years until he was able to produce his next masterpiece, the 1999 Prestige. More than a decade passed before he got this latest opportunity to refine the style.

The wine's inspiration – and indeed its product name – can be traced back to 1985.

That was the year Lubiana worked vintage in Champagne.

"One of the things I enjoyed most about working there was having the chance to taste a lot of their top quality, prestige cuvées," he says.

"That's what this wine is, a prestige cuvée. It's a pretty special wine."

As special as it was, that first Prestige was quite different from wines now being produced under the Stefano Lubiana Grand Vintage and Prestige labels.

"When it was young, the 1995 was so acid you couldn't drink it. I didn't put it through malolactic fermentation so the wine had this huge acidity as a result. But I knew that that was what it needed if it was going to be kept in bottle for a very long time.

"The other thing is it had heaps of fruit character, which is something I would never do when I'm making my vintage and non-vintage sparkling wines. It takes ages and ages for those fruit characters to develop into interesting secondary characters.

"So in the beginning, this wine was very fruity, very limey and very acid.

"And unlike our other vintage sparkling wines, the 1995 went into bottle early, with very little time on lees in the hope that all of its complexity would be built up from long bottle ageing.

"As the years passed, I'd keep on tasting it and tasting it. For a long while, there was nothing much happening.

"Then finally – after a really long time in the bottle – it slowly began to develop some very interesting complexity in its aromas and flavours. It was a bit of a gamble really, because sometimes you see wines that are very hard and acidic and they never soften and become enjoyable drinks.

"That was my fear. That the wine just wouldn't ever come around. It did eventually. It just took a little bit longer than we planned."

Thirty years on, Lubiana is creating a different form of vintage sparkling on the family's 26ha site.

These days, foudres (large oak vats) are used to ferment and age base wines, transforming and softening their textures while also creating layers of complexity. Malolactic fermentation is now an essential part of the process.

More time and care than ever before is being taken in handling the fruit on its journey through the winemaking process. That provides each tiraged wine with opportunities to evolve and mature by maximising their time on yeast lees.

"That time is usually between three and fifteen years," Lubiana explains.

"Prestige is made in a dry or brut style, so there's quite a low dosage at the end of the whole process. It's normally around three grams per litre."

Yes, time is a critical factor in making these wines, Lubiana explains. 

But even more critical is all the time and care he and Monique have given to their vineyard since coming from South Australia and planting vines almost 35 years ago. 

That and getting to know what they had under their noses all along.

Clonal selections, for example, have been fine-tuned to suit sparkling wine production. They're also being grown and managed in the right kind of soil as well. University of Tasmania research on the site over a decade revealed a plethora of soil types, from fine silty/alluvial sands to clay loams and even true Terra Rossa material. 

"I don't want too many fruity characters in these juices," Lubiana explains.

"A bit of austerity is a good thing and we're getting that from the mix of clones we're using. Mid-palate weight is also very important. We're looking to have texture and fleshiness, and that's something I need to build early on in the vineyard."

The Lubianas' Granton site received biodynamic certification back in 2013. But the move away from using synthetic chemicals really began in 2008. That marked the start of what is normally a three-year transition period before certification is granted.

Those first three years in particular saw the vineyard go through a 'cold turkey' phase. Vines on their site really struggled after no longer being force-fed vital minerals and nutrients. Biodynamic management – including the use of homeopathic preparations such as compost teas – made vines more resilient over time.

Vine canopies became leafier and better equipped to provide bunches with the dappled light Lubiana says is essential for subtle flavour development without the risk of sunburn.

Fruit flavours not only improved and intensified over time, he says, they came earlier than ever before in the ripening phase.

"That allows us to pick at a lower Baumé and achieve really well balanced wines, right from the outset," he adds.

"Wines with good intensity and finesse. Very much with a sense of place."

Prestige.

Last page update: 26 May 2026